Document Type

Article

Disciplines

International Law

Abstract

The various anniversary celebrations to which the Napoleonic Code has given rise during the two centuries of its existence, in particular the present bicentenary events, have given French and foreign lawyers numerous opportunities to comment on its influence in the world. This plethora of studies at once shows the extraordinary destiny of the work of 1804 and the wide diversity of its transpositions. Among the most recent and complete studies, one in the Bicentenary Book by a most remarkable French comparative lawyer, Professor Xavier Blanc-Jouvan, must be mentioned. My comments today owe a great deal to it; so topical, complete, accurate and convincing is his analysis.

Following in the footsteps of all these great minds, is the Chief Justice of the French Cour de cassation, who is neither an academic nor a comparative lawyer, the most suitable person to measure the influence of the law that he practices and interprets on a daily basis? Does he possess the requisite scientific legitimacy and would he not be naturally inclined to exaggerate the place his own familiar law occupies in the world? These questions impart a certain natural relativity to my brief and modest comments, though I am not unaware that the perilous exercise on which I am embarking here before you only serves any purpose if it is lucid and critical.

Accessibility Requirements

1

Download

Share

COinS